“Act of God” Exposes Egg Industry’s Body and Soul

It
was called a “natural disaster” – and
“Act of God” – but there was nothing
“natural” about the immense animal suffering
that occurred when tornadoes hit the Buckeye Egg Farm in Croton,
OH.

Similar tragedy occurs every
day in henhouses across the country; see the investigations listed
on our video
links page.

The Buckeye Egg Farm is one of the largest
egg factories in the country, and uses
15 million hens for its egg production
operation. Like typical egg factory farms,
the hens are housed in large warehouses
and each chicken building holds between
80,000 to 100,000 birds. The birds are
crowded into wire “battery cages” stacked
three rows high. Feed, water and manure
disposal systems in the buildings are

Tornadoes struck twelve of Buckeye’s
chicken buildings, revealing the body
of animal agriculture, usually hidden
from the public. Over one million animals
became trapped in cages without food,
water or shelter – the victims of a disaster
caused – not by tornadoes -- but by large

Farm
Sanctuary and other animal protection
groups contacted Buckeye Egg Farm and
after three days of phone calls and faxes
– and urgent pleading – the egg operation
agreed to give hens to animal sanctuaries.
Within hours, dozens of animal advocates
started mobilizing to transport birds
to shelters. But as the days past and
most of the birds continued languishing
in cages, advocates urged Buckeye to remove
all of the surviving birds from cages
and set up fenced holding areas where
the animals could receive necessary food,
water and care.

Although Buckeye set up one holding area,
the majority of birds were thrown directly
from cages into the buckets of front end
loaders by Buckeye employees. The buckets
full of live birds were then unloaded
into dumpsters, where the birds were killed
by crushing, suffocation or CO2
gas.

On September 29th – nine days after tornadoes
hit – Buckeye Egg Farm announced it was
stopping the rescue effort and would no
longer remove hens from the cages due
to “worker safety” concerns. In a press
release issued by Buckeye Egg Farm, Bill
Glass, Buckeye Egg’s chief operating officer
stated that “the work performed to rescue
our hens had become physically and emotionally
”

With the support of dozens of national
and local animal protection groups, Farm
Sanctuary urged Buckeye to start removing
the live birds from cages again, so the
animals would not die a slow, painful
death from starvation and neglect. It
was also discovered that OSHA (the government
agency responsible for worker safety issues)
had not told Buckeye they had to
stop removing the birds due to worker
safety violations. After informing Buckeye
officials that this reason was not valid,
Buckeye reversed its decision within two
days and allowed animal protection groups
to continue rescuing birds.

But time was clearly running out for
the hens. When advocates went to Buckeye
on October 1st to pick up more hens, a
Buckeye official revealed the soul
of animal agriculture, and told us
they did not want to continue removing
birds from the cages – despite the fact
that hundreds of thousands of birds were
still alive. Apparently Buckeye Egg Farm’s
attempt to put a positive spin on the
situation was no longer working – or “economical”

On October 3rd – 14 days after the tornadoes
ripped through the egg farm – Buckeye suspended
the rescue effort. Demolition crews moved
in with heavy equipment to clear out the
chicken building sites. More than one
half million chickens, still trapped alive
in the wreckage, were crushed to death
or buried alive.